Toshiba And SanDisk Announce 19nm Chip

These days if you’re not in some sort of partnership, then
you can forget about developing super-small NAND flash memory chips.

Earlier this month we had the announcement from
Intel and Micron about their latest 20nm process technology for building said
chips, and today we have Toshiba and SanDisk going one better (1nm that is. They announced the 19nm 64Gb (8GB) X2 memory chip or for the moment, the smallest NAND flash memory chip
in the world. Toshiba and SanDisk have been together for some time now,
even having joint ownership of the Yokkaichi SSD Japanese production plant and
this is the latest result from their fruitful partnership.

Yoram Cedar, executive vice president and chief technology
officer, SanDisk said: "Products based on this technology are designed to
enable new applications, form factors and consumer experience that will
continue to drive the flash industry to new heights." They plan to begin
sampling the monolithic chips this quarter and they hope high-volume production will
begin in the second half of this year. Also in the second half of this year,
SanDisk said it will add 3-bits-per-cell (X3) products fabricated with the 19nm
process technology to its product lineup. This latest improvement, along with
Intel and Micron’s now bloated-looking 20nm chips, should mean we begin to see
higher storage capacity in smartphones and tablets without added bulk.

With the possibility of a 128GB SSD less than the size of a
postage stamp now a reality thanks to advances like this, we hope that as well
as reducing bulk in our gadgets, we will see a lowering of prices of SSDs,
which until now have been prohibitively high.